Investment Group Balkan eyes solar park in Sokolac municipality in BiH

Investment Group Balkan has expressed its interest in building a solar power plant on 100 hectares in Sokolac municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Representatives of the company, whose founders are from Russia, China and Lithuania, accompanied by Gordan Milinić, director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of BiH (FIPA), discussed the investment with Milovan Bjelica, head of Sokolac municipality.

The latter said Investment Group Balkan is a major investor with successful projects in the Balkans region and that it cooperates with power utility Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske.

The RS Government and the line ministry should be consulted

According to Bjelica, the investment in solar park is not small as it is estimated at a few hundred million euros.

The Municipality of Sokolac doesn’t intend to sell the land to an investor, but to lease it, in his words.

Consultations with the Government of the Republic of Srpska and the competent ministry will be held, as the local authority doesn’t have the right to issue permits for the construction of facilities for electricity generation, he said.

A study by ISO BiH envisages the construction of two solar power plants, one of 60 MW and the other of 80 MW

He recalled that BiH’s transmission system operator Nezavisni operator sistema (NOS) has prepared a study on solar energy in Sokolac.

The study envisages the construction of two solar power plants, with a capacity of 60 MW and 80 MW.

The municipality will analyze all the conditions for the installation of the solar park, said Bjelica, adding the Sokolac could offer a public-private partnership or a land concession in exchange for the electricity produced.

The representatives of Investment Group Balkan said it has been operating in the Balkans for five years and that it implemented numerous projects including in Macedonia and the Federation of BiH.

Gordan Milinić, director of FIPA, said the company participated in the construction of the Kamengrad thermal power plant in Sanski Most and Škadimovac wind farm in Glamoč.